The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface

by Donald Maass

Readers are having their own experience that is merely occasioned by what’s on the page.

No two readers read a novel the same way.

Readers want an emotional experience. They want to feel something, not about the story but about themselves. While reading, they want a sense of play. They want to anticipate, guess, think, and judge, true, but they also want to emerge from a story feeling competent, like they have been through something.